A machine to machine (M2M) communication refers to any communication scheme which does not require human intervention in the process of communication. In other words, the M2M communication refers to a communication for providing persons or intelligent equipment with object information using communication networks, or allowing persons or intelligent equipment to control states of objects. The M2M communication may be variously referred to as a machine type communication (MTC), Internet of things (IoT), a smart device communication (SDC), a machine oriented communication (MOC), or an object to object intelligent network (O2N).
A variety of technologies such as a location awareness, a context awareness, and/or an augmented reality may be introduced in an M2M service or an M2M network. Accordingly, a purpose of the M2M communication is to further improve the quality and stability of M2M communication services, while automatically performing operations customized to users and/or situations without a human intervention or in a state in which a human intervention is minimized.
An M2M communication may be employed for overcoming a variety of social issues (e.g., a disaster prevention, an energy saving) through u-City, u-Health, u-Transportation, u-Environment industries, and so forth. An M2M service associated with the M2M network communication may include a remote metering, a building/facility management, a vending machine management, an indoor lighting adjustment, a traffic information/vehicle control, an emergency rescue, a fire alarm, a security alarm, a telemetry, and so forth.
M2M communication started from an ubiquitous sensor network for a local area. However, as the scope and purpose of M2M applications diversified, a variety of wired/wireless communication networks may be employed for the M2M communication. For example, local area wireless communication techniques (e.g., Zigbee, Bluetooth, WiFi, etc.) having low-cost and low-power characteristics, and cellular-based mobile communication techniques (e.g., a 3GPP communication, an LTE communication, etc.) having high-speed may be employed for a variety of services such as situation awareness, location information service, and/or a remote control.
A typical M2M communication may be used to collect objective information (or quantitative data) (e.g., 25° C., 5 km/hour, etc.) by remotely monitoring or controlling a plurality of M2M devices. However, the typical M2M communication is operated according to a predetermined operation policy (e.g., a data collection period, a device operation condition, etc.). Accordingly, there may be a limitation of not being able to collect data adaptively and in real time according to an environment change.
Meanwhile, a variety of social network services (SNS) such as Facebook, Twitter, and/or Kakao Talk are being widely used to form human networks (social networks) between users on the web. The social network services (SNS) may enable users to rapidly share ideas, pictures, posts, activities, events, interests, and living information with people in their network. Particularly, due to proliferation of mobile terminals such as smart phones, users may share various information anywhere and anytime. Data/information (e.g., hot, cold, traffic jam, etc.) shared through the social network service (SNS) may have characteristics of subjective data/information (or qualitative data/information) since the data/information is associated with human activities.
In summary, M2M services and SNS may provide data/information (e.g., weather data, traffic data, etc.) associated with a human life. However, data/information shared in SNS services may be subjective, qualitative, abstract, and real-time, whereas data/information provided through M2M services may be objective, quantitative, and accurate. Accordingly, the M2M service and the SNS may be required to interwork.